Ruined - Amy Tintera Page 0,86
her forehead to the tops of her knees.
“Are you crying?” Cas asked, like it was the first time he’d ever seen anyone do it.
She didn’t want to admit it out loud, so she remained silent and tried not to let her shoulders shake.
“You’ve lied to me, attempted to destroy my kingdom, basically killed my father, and now you’re crying?”
She sniffled. The boat tilted slightly, and she peeked up to see him scanning the area, holding the oars out of the water.
“I . . . I can’t even go anywhere,” he said. “I’m stuck on this boat with you, watching you cry.”
She wrapped her arms around her legs as she tried to get ahold of herself.
“It’s been a bad few days,” she mumbled.
He was quiet for several seconds. When he finally spoke, his voice was softer, calm. “It really has.”
Em woke to Cas yelling her name.
She jerked awake, her brain cloudy and her body stiff. She’d fallen into a deep sleep, and it took several seconds to pull herself out of it.
When the fog cleared, she realized the boat was going very, very fast.
And the noise . . . what was that?
She whipped her head around, squinting in the dim, early morning sun. A waterfall. It was still too dark to see it, but from the speed they were going, they must be rapidly approaching it.
Cas grabbed her hand, the boat lurching dangerously to the right. “Get out of the boat!” he yelled. “We’re going over—”
His sentence ended in a gasp as the boat tilted down.
She lost Cas’s hand as the water swallowed them both.
THIRTY-THREE
CAS GASPED AS he surfaced from the water. His entire body stung from the impact, but he hadn’t hit anything solid.
He couldn’t say the same for the boat, however. Pieces of wood bobbed on the dark river.
Em was nowhere to be seen.
“Em?” He splashed in a circle, desperately squinting in the darkness. “Em!”
He didn’t see her. His chest started to tighten, panic creeping in. What if he lost her like this? What if, after everything, he lost her going over a stupid waterfall?
“Cas!” Her yell came from behind him, and he whipped around and swam toward it as fast as he could.
He heard her breathing before he saw her. Em’s head barely bobbed above the surface, and she sucked in air before disappearing under. She resurfaced a second later.
He reached for her, his fingers finding her under the water. He tried to tug her up, but her body resisted.
“It’s . . . stuck,” she gasped, her arms flailing. “My foot is stuck.”
“Which foot?”
“The left one.” Her face disappeared underneath the water for a moment, and she spit out water when she surfaced.
He took in a deep breath and dove down. It was too dark to see anything, so he had to feel his way down her leg. At her foot he felt something slimy and stringy wrapped around it. He tugged at it, but it didn’t budge.
His lungs burned and he kicked to the surface, sucking in a deep breath. “I’ve almost got it,” he said. “Try to stay still.”
She nodded and he dove back under, grabbing her leg. He yanked on the vine as hard as he could. It finally released Em’s leg.
He swam back up, his hands finding her waist. She was shaking, and she immediately clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He circled one arm around her waist, using the other to keep them afloat. “It’s all right,” he said softly.
“Thank you,” she said, lowering her face into his shoulder.
“You’re welcome.”
For a moment the only noise was the water rushing and Em breathing against him, and he realized that he wasn’t supposed to be saving her. If he’d been thinking clearly, he might have remembered that he hated her. He should have been ordering her execution, not saving her life.
His last thought hit him like a blow to the head, and his stomach lurched. Was he really going to order her execution? Stand by and watch a soldier chop off her head, the way his father had with Damian?
No. The answer came immediately. He cleared his throat and tried to think more sensibly. If she were standing in front of him, being judged by Lera law, of course she would have to be executed. There was no other option.
Still, he couldn’t imagine giving that order.
He held her tighter. He would save her again, and again, no matter how angry he was with her.
“Can you swim?” he asked quietly.
She nodded, and his fingers